Articles
“Perfectly United”
“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”
Jesus’ desire is for His disciples to be perfectly united (Jn. 17:22-23). Like love (Jn. 13:35), unity is like God’s signature on a church. The Corinthian church, however, was giving God a black eye in their community. Paul wrote to expose and correct their shameful disunity which was a direct result of their lack of mutual love.
A Brotherly Appeal
He begins with an “appeal,” or an exhortation, as opposed to a command. First, Paul urges the Corinthians on the basis of their spiritual kinship as “brothers” and sisters in God’s family. Sharing this family tie by the blood of Christ they should conform their behavior to the gospel, not as law but as a response to the grace that is in Christ who brought them together.
An Apostolic Command
Paul does not end with a mere exhortation. By the middle of his sentence he flexes his apostolic muscles with the phrase “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul isn’t just requesting unity in Corinth, he is commanding it with his full apostolic authority! The name of Jesus, and all that it stands for, is the bedrock of his appeal. His appeal for unity is stated both positively and negatively three ways in an A, B, A pattern. He is teaching the same truth from three different angles.
Paul is urging them that…
A. “all of you agree” (positive)
B. “there be no divisions among you” (negative)
A. “be united in the same mind & the same judgment” (positive)
Universal Agreement
Positively, Paul urges unity by repeating “the same” three times in the mirrored lines (A) – that they all “agree” (literally, “say the same thing” NET) and be “united in the same mind” and “the same judgment.” Christians who work and worship together must agree on the fundamentals of the gospel, which Paul later spells out in the letter (1 Cor. 1:18-3:23). Paul isn’t suggesting that every Christian is uniformly “the same” and shares the same function in the body (ch.12). There is a necessary diversity in the church that serves to strengthen the body.
Rather, Paul is teaching that Christians must agree on the fundamental matters of the gospel, like the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:3-5) or the seven “ones” he lists to the Ephesians (Eph. 4:1-6, esp. vv.4-6). How then could the Corinthians be in agreement? To find out, we must note how Paul states his teaching negatively (line B).
Tearing Up the Church
Our English word “schism” is derived from the Greek word for “divisions” (schismata) that Paul uses here. Paul is not necessarily speaking of parties or factions in this verse (although he will later, 1:12ff). The word means “tear/rent” (cf. Mk. 2:21). The same word could be used to describe a plow dividing the soil into two separate lines in a field. John uses the word to describe the divided opinions different groups had concerning Jesus which resulted in them arguing with one another.
“Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division (schisma) among them.” (Jn. 9:16; cf. 7:40-43; 10:19-21)
This was the situation in Corinth, though their divided opinions were not of Jesus. The Corinthian division was over their divergent opinions of their various church leaders. This tear within the congregation had developed into jealousy and quarrelling. “For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers” (1 Cor. 1:11; cf. 3:3). What is Paul’s solution to this worldly problem?
Mending the Church
Rather than tearing up what Jesus had died to unify, the Corinthians needed to work towards being “united.” This would require diligent effort on their part (Eph. 4:3). The word Paul uses here is the same word Mark uses for the “mending/restoring” of fishing nets (Mk. 1:19). In other words, the Corinthians had torn the threads that once bound them and now needed to be “knit” back “together” (1 Cor. 1:10 NET).
A torn congregation can only be knit together by the same thread that united them in the first place: the love of God. This lack of mutual love was at the heart of all of the Corinthian’s problems which Paul highlights later in the letter (1 Cor. 8:1; 13:1ff; 14:1; 16:14).
Exhibiting the same selfless love Jesus showed us is the one-size-fits-all approach to mending a torn congregation. We are to be “knit together in love” (Col. 2:2), “rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. 3:17) and “owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8). For unity to exist, love must abound.
